Abubakar Nurmagomedov is finally getting back into competition, and it comes with a shot at revenge. Three years removed from his last MMA fight and two years after parting ways with the UFC, the 36-year-old cousin of Khabib Nurmagomedov has a rematch on the books against the man who handed him one of the most memorable losses of his career.
Abubakar will face David Zawada in an 84-kilogram wrestling bout under the AIGA grappling series banner, with the match set for the ORA Arena in Istanbul, Turkey.
The two first met at UFC Moscow in 2019, in what was Abubakar’s promotional debut. After dominating the opening minutes with wrestling and ground-and-pound, Abubakar was caught in a first-round triangle choke and forced to tap, an upset finish for Zawada at the time.
That loss didn’t end Abubakar’s UFC run. He rattled off back-to-back wins over Jared Gooden and Gadzhi Omargadzhiev to avoid leaving the promotion with a losing record, before ultimately parting ways with the UFC following a split decision loss to Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos in 2024, which stands as his most recent professional fight.
He was briefly linked to a 2025 MMA return under the Global Fight League banner, though that bout never materialized.
Now, seven years after their first encounter, Abubakar gets the chance to settle the score with Zawada, just not inside the Octagon this time. The Dagestani grappler, part of the extended Nurmagomedov MMA dynasty, will look to show he still has plenty left in the tank as he works his way back toward competition.
